AirAsia Wants to Beat U.S. Fast Food Chains by Opening First Airline Food Restaurant
Photo Credit: Tony Fernandes at his first Santan restaurant launch in Kuala Lumpur. AirAsia Group
Skift Take
The world's first attempt to bring airline cuisine to the ground — not the other way round — is here, and in a few years AirAsia figures there will be a chain of 1,000 franchised restaurants. It's becoming a serious matter.
Not only does Tony Fernandes want to disrupt online travel agencies, he also wants take on American fast-food chains that have long dominated the Southeast Asia region.
Not only that, he is doing it with airline food and — more gulps — airline coffee. The group CEO of ASEAN’s largest low-cost carrier first floated the idea in February that AirAsia’s food was so “fantastic” that he would start a fast food restaurant serving it.
AirAsia on Monday opened its first quick-service restaurant and cafe, based on the airline’s inflight Santan menu and T&Co coffee, in a mega-mall in Mid Valley, a central shopping haven in Kuala Lumpur.
By the end of 2020, the airline group aims to own five Santan
